At some point this year I'd like to pick up a good ol' stringer. You know, the Solina type. One of my first synths was a Prelude, but at the time I had no idea what I was doing and let it go. The Solina obviously would be great, along with a VP330 or RS505, but I don't want to sink that much into it.

No bias just because I'm selling one, but the Korg Lambda is very nice. It's more of a general ensemble keyboard than a stringer, and thought the Piano and whatnot aren't great alone, combinations of presets can sound wonderful. The Chorus is particularly nice (ie, the choir sound). It uses 3 oscillators with out-of-phase modulation to give a nice thick finish, and the BBD ensemble (ie, chorus effect) can get nice and phasey as slow settings. Stereo output too. And it looks like furniture.

I've got a Roland RS-101 too, from about 1975, which is always breaking down but sounds great - it only does one thing though, which some will find limiting. Stick it through a Small Stone or Phase 100 and you're laughing.

I've played and owned many over the years. The most superb to my ears is the Roland VP-330 and RS-505 quad-bbd ensembles. So thick and juicy, full of life and character. I am also a big fan of the Solina, there is just something magical about the way the parts are filtered that give it a distinct tone. Here's a quick pulse on my sentiments:- Logan String Melody: Full rich timbre due to 4 octave voice mix.- Elka Rhapsody, Crumar Multiman/Orchestrator: excellent stringers on a budget. You could hardly go wrong if it has three bbd lines.- Roland RS-202: meh.- Korg Polysix: very nice bbd ensemble effects for having only one bbd line(?).- Korg Delta: a little on the bizarre side, its character sounds more like a cheesy organ to me but the synth can be layered in with interesting results.- JH Triple Chorus: Sounds especially good on phase-locked polysynths like the Juno-106.- Freeman: one day I'll get to play one.

I can only speak for the ones I own, but both are pretty nice. The Hohner String Performer is very lush and mellow, clearly synthetic, Oxygene kind of string sounds. Its additional sounds aren't worth much (the piano and clavichord can do pretty nicely for putting a harder attack on the strings, but the solo sounds are just absurdly cheesy,) but the basic sound is just gorgeous.

The Crumar Orchestrator, on the other hand, is brighter and crisper, sounding more like an attempt to synthesize Mellotron strings - even with the tone control all the way down it's not as soft as the Hohner. The basic sound isn't as lush, but it's still quite nice, and the additional sounds are much better - piano and clavichord sound good on their own and mix very nicely, and the paraphonic brass section has a Moog filter on which you can adjust the envelope cutoff amount and resonance, which is excellent.

I've got a Crumar Performer and I love the string sounds it makes. Select both octave range buttons at the same time, then push the bass and treble bias up and drop the mid bias down and it's got a very etherial sound to it. That said, I hate the brass sound. But the string sound more than make up for the brass.

Don't know how useful this is, but these are my experiences on the string machines I've owned or played with enough to form an opinion.

Logan String MelodySoft, lush, ethereal. Probably my favourite string ensemble sound. Doesn't cut through the mix as well as some others. But man, I just love the sound. I've played on Melody II, but long ago and can't really say how they compare soundwise.

Hohner String PerformerVery similar to String Melody, but not as soft. The string sound is "heavier". Ie. more bass, has a bit of a grinding quality to it, but the difference isn't huge.

Crumar Multiman S (same as Orchestrator)A bit weedier than the Logan, more "real" sounding. A great feature set. And the strings cut through really well. You can't adjust the attack fully, IIRC, but the tone controls are nice to have. A nice underdog solution.

Solina String EnsembleI've had two that were rather different in sound. One was very lush and with a deeper chorus. The other was weedier and the ensemble effect didn't seem as deep as on the other. I like the Logan better, but the Solina works on just about anything.

Korg PE-2000Fantastic phaser, but without it the strings were rather dry sounding. Other polyphonic sounds lackluster, but still with some of that old-Korg character. An oddball.

Yamaha SK-20The organ is the best part here. The strings are alright, maybe a bit like the Crumars, a bit weak though and not what I'd call lush. The synth section is alright, but the Opus sounds better to me.

Carey M wrote:Logan String MelodySoft, lush, ethereal. Probably my favourite string ensemble sound. Doesn't cut through the mix as well as some others. But man, I just love the sound. I've played on Melody II, but long ago and can't really say how they compare soundwise.

Solina String EnsembleI've had two that were rather different in sound. One was very lush and with a deeper chorus. The other was weedier and the ensemble effect didn't seem as deep as on the other. I like the Logan better, but the Solina works on just about anything.

I own both (well, a String Melody II) and would agree with this. The Logan is sweet and ethereal whereas my Eminent is darker and more raspy. At some point I intend doing a video comparing the sounds.

Isn't the only difference between the SM and SMII that the latter has different presets which affect the chorus/vibrato and in some cases over-ride the mixer levels? Or are there sonic differences in the underlying architecture?

The trumpet and horn on the Solina can add a useful bit of weight to the sound but don't sound very brassy on their own. The Solina's CV outs are also very useful – I have Doepfer minicase processing unit to run them through so I can get sounds like the GForce Virtual String Machine (which was what got me hooked) and it's less faffy on the Solina; whereas I have to rely on the enveloper follower for the Logan.

The SMII's variable mixing of the violin/viola/cello levels is really great for shaping the sound. I also find the fact that it's an octave higher than the Solina very useful, as is its keyboard split and ability to have different settings on the upper and lower sections.

Another plus point for the String Melody is that it's properly polyphonic wherease the Solina is only paraphonic, but in the Solina's favour its attack/release are far longer than the Logan's, which are rather short IMO.

I really, dearly wish my Logan's Bass and especially Percussive Bass worked (they're barely audible) as I'd get a lot of mileage out of the latter. The Logan's rather more manageable weight-wise as well

I'm amazed at how both have shot up in price in the last few years. I think a couple of absolutely mint Logans have, unfortunately, sent the price of lesser ones sky high on eBay, at least in the UK. I only paid about £130 for mine but they seem to go for about 600 quid these days (not that I've looked in ages). I thought £750 was steep for a Solina at the time a few years ago, but they seem to have gone crazy